Fix: A clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval

There is a good reason why users are so “afraid” of Blue Screens of Death (BSOD). They appear out of nowhere and your computer needs to be restarted no matter what you were working on. They usually appear frequently as well. This one is no exception and, once it begins occurring, it occurs quite often and there is no official fix for it.

Some attribute the cause of this error to overclocking but plenty of users claim that they have never even tried something similar. Check out our solutions one by one and see if any of them can solve your problem!

Solution 1: Update Your BIOS to the Latest Version

This was the official response by Asus after some users complained about the frequent occurrence of the problem and they weren’t overclocking their processor at all. Asus said that the problem can be solved by updating your BIOS to the latest version. This is a viable solution even if you don’t own an Asus PC since the error is not exclusive to any manufacturer.

Find out the current version of BIOS you have installed on your PC by typing msinfo in the Search bar located next to the Start menu button.

Locate the BIOS version info just under your Processor model and copy or rewrite this to a text file or a piece of paper.

Find out whether your computer was bundled, pre-built or assembled manually by purchasing all components individually. This is significant because you don’t want to use BIOS made for one component of your PC when it won’t apply to other devices and you will overwrite BIOS with a wrong version, leading to major errors and system mayhem.

Prepare your computer for the update. If you are updating your laptop, make sure its battery is fully charged. If you are updating a computer, it’s advisable to use an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to make sure your PC doesn’t turn off during the update because of a power outage.

Follow the instructions we prepared for various desktop and laptop manufacturers such as Lenovo, Gateway, HP, Dell, and MSI.

Solution 2: Stop Overclocking Your CPU

Overclocking is a process where you change the frequency processor to a greater value and above the recommended factory value. This can give your PC a significant speed boost but you have to absolutely careful since there were situations where entire rigs went down in fire after users overclocked them too much. S

Some CPUs were definitely not made to be overclocked and it’s a fact that some versions work better than the others. What’s even more important is that different tools used to overclock work better or worse depending on the processor which is being used which also affects the chance of this error occurring.

Returning your CPU’s frequency to its original state depends on which software you used to overclock in the first place. Intel and AMD have their own applications available to download which let users overclock their CPUs but there are dozens of programs available to choose from so use them to stop overclocking or simply try using a different tool and check to see if the problem still appears.

Solution 3: Disable Unleashing Mode and Core Unlocker (AMD Users)

If you are an AMD user, you should know that this particular solution might as well work for you if you are not currently overclocking your CPU. There are several settings available in BIOS which may affect the chance of this error appearing and you should try to disable them and check if the problem still appears.

Turn off your computer by going to the Start Menu >> Power Button >> Shut down.

Turn your PC on again and try to enter BIOS settigns by pressing the BIOS key while the system starts. The BIOS key is typically displayed on the boot screen, saying “Press ___ to enter Setup.” There are other common messages as wel. Common BIOS keys are F1, F2, Del, Esc and F10. Note that you will have to be quick about this as the message disappears pretty fast meaning you will need to restart to try again.

The settings which you need to turn off are usually located under the CPU Settings tab which may be called different depending on the manufacturer. They are called Unleashing Mode and Core Unlocker. However, the settings should probably be named in a similar manner so you should consider searching for a bit and you will eventually manage to find it.

Once you locate the correct settings, change both of them from On to Off or from Enabled to Disabled depending on the manufacturer. Navigate to the Exit section and choose to Exit Saving Changes. This will proceed with the boot. Make sure you try to run the update again.

Don’t forget to change the settings back to their original state after you have finished with the process and installed Windows 10 successfully on your computer.

Note: If this does not work for you, navigate to the Advanced CPU Core Features section under CPU Settings and try disabling the C6 State Support by navigating to that option and setting it to Disabled. This has helped plenty of users, especially for AMD users.

Solution 4: Update All of Your Drivers

It’s possible to analyze the dump messages left behind by all BSODs but that is a process which differs from user to user and it’s hard to make it general to be followed by everyone. However, there is a thing which is almost there to be noticed, and that is outdated drivers which cause all kinds of errors, including the one at hand.

Update all of your drivers and you will definitely prevent the error from occurring if one of the drivers caused it. Either way, you will end up with a PC with up-to-date drivers!

Select the Start menu button, type Device Manager, and select it from the list of results which should be displayed at the top of the window.

Expand one of the categories to find the name of your device, then right-click (or tap and hold) it, and select the Update Driver option. For example, for graphics cards, expand the Display adapters category, right click on your graphics card and select Update Driver.

Select Search automatically for updated driver software.

If Windows doesn’t find a new driver, you can try looking for one on the device manufacturer’s website and follow their instructions. They differ from one manufacturer to another.

Note: If you are using Windows 10, latest drivers are often installed alongside other Windows updates so make sure you keep your computer up to date. Windows Update is run automatically on Windows 10 but you can check by following the instructions below for a new update.

Use the Windows Key + I key combination in order to open Settings on your Windows PC. Alternatively, you can search for “Settings” by using the search bar located at the right side of the taskbar.

Locate and open the “Update & security” section in the Settings app.

Stay in the Windows Update tab and click on the Check for updates button under the Update status in order to see whether there is a new version of Windows available.

If there is one, Windows should proceed with the download process automatically.

Expert Tip

Fix: A clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval

If the issue is with your Computer or a Laptop you should try using Reimage Plus which can scan the repositories and replace corrupt and missing files. This works in most cases, where the issue is originated due to a system corruption. You can download Reimage by clicking the Download button below.